[2023] The contextual ping system sends callouts that are OPPOSITE of what you said. So stupid.

Original Post — Direct link

For a few weeks now, the contextual ping system has been changing your pings to what it thinks you mean.

This is incredibly hilarious when you say "Fall Back" but you're looking forward, so your actual ping says "Going In."

In this case, I'm on Ana. I have to keep looking forward to heal, but want to my team to retreat while I do. Sorry! You need to stare at the ground to say that.

^I ^HAVE ^A ^BUTTON ^BOUND ^TO ^"FALL ^BACK." ^I ^CANNOT ^USE ^IT ^UNLESS ^I ^STOP ^HEALING ^AND ^LOOK ^DOWN. ^{^WHY} ^{^DOES} ^{^THIS} ^{^EXIST} ^{^{^{AHH^{HHHH^{HHHHHH^{HHH^{HHHH^{HHHH^{HHHH^{HHHH^{HHHH^HHHH}}}}}}}}}}}

Nothing is more infuriating than specifically choosing an input and being auto-corrected to a wrong input. Stop trying to make smart systems. We are smart enough to communicate.

Other offenders are:

"Group up" being replaced with "I'm going in" and "I'm with you."
"Need help" being replaced with "Come to me for healing"
Literally every callout while you're dead being replaced with "I'm respawning."

External link →

almost 2 years ago - /u/blizz_winter - Direct link

Hey all, I'll start by saying the issues you're seeing here are my fault and they are mostly not intentional. When I was building the Ping System I built it on top of the Comms system from OW1, and some of these issues are because of things I missed in that upgrade.

The most obviously unfortunate one is "Group Up" saying "I'm on my way". This was a feature in OW1 (it said "I'm with you" IIRC), but it only happened within 40 meters when you were aiming at an ally. I accidentally bypassed a check, and that distance defaulted to 500 meters instead of 40. This functionality is disabled entirely for the mid-season patch, but I'd like to bring back in a minor way in the future.

The other bug that this thread focuses on is harder to diagnose, but we have a bug in Season 2 right now where if you open the ping wheel and then cancel it (with right mouse or with B on xbox, circle on playstation), *then* use the comms wheel you fire a ping like "Going In". This is fixed in Season 3 because we were too far along with Season 2.5 when we found it a couple of weeks ago. Apologies for that.

With regards to comms and pings being replaced with the "I'm Respawning" text, there are things we can improve here too, but obviously it's mostly intentional. "Fall Back" will work while dead in the mid-season patch for example, as I've added it to the list of comms/pings that can do this. "Fall Back" will have unique behavior while dead in that it won't place a ping in the world, it will only print the message in chat. Things like "Acknowledged", "Yes", "No", "Thanks", and "Goodbye" are still allowed while dead, but others are intentionally disallowed like "I need Healing" (no you don't you're dead), "I'm on my way" (no you aren't you're dead), and "I'm ready" (no you aren't you're dead).

I'm happy to add other comms/pings to the "allowed while dead" list if they provide useful communications.

almost 2 years ago - /u/blizz_winter - Direct link

Originally posted by Slamfire_ow

Thank you for the explanation! Really cool to see behind the scenes on stuff like this so thank you for braving reddit to tell us.

I always used "On my way" while I was dead to signify I'm not there yet. An option like "I'm not with you" could be really helpful in that context. I feel like the only dead comms that have been used toxically were "I need healing/help" and "Thanks!" for the most part.

Edit: "Nice Shot!" "Great pass!" and "Wow!" have also been used toxically ;)

Great ideas! We will keep developing this system and we'll be looking to make improvements like what you're suggesting here.

almost 2 years ago - /u/blizz_winter - Direct link

Originally posted by Proof-Importance-890

Please consider removing the feature where sudden mouse movements bring up the ping menu, no matter what the delay is set to in settings. This throws off my aim so much when I attempt to ping an enemy I'm fighting, and results in unintentionally pinging "I'm attacking!" or "I am defending!" when it is not really the case.

Thanks for the feedback! I'd guess most players are not aware of this feature so that's really perceptive! We agree it was too aggressive in season 1, so we made it harder to shortcut into the ping wheel for season 2 through this method.

If it's still happening to you in season 2 in scenarios where you find it undesirable please let us know!

almost 2 years ago - /u/blizz_winter - Direct link

Originally posted by darkfighter3000

I would love to see ult status voice line to be allowed while dead since it helps mercy decide to whether to res. I'm saying this both as a mercy player and when I'm playing other roles. Of course, I can press TAB and check the ult charge but that's one extra thing to do in the midst of chaos.

This should be one of the ones that's allowed now. I'll double check.

← More from Overwatch

Recent Overwatch Posts

about 15 hours ago - Overwatch Esports

1 day ago - PlayOverwatch

1 day ago - Blizzard Entertainment

Recent Overwatch Posts

OWCS Returns in 2025

Play as Hazard now through 11/25 💪

Hazard | New Hero Gameplay Trailer | Overwatch 2

ICYMI – Exploring Hazard’s Art, Backstory, and Gameplay